Image by Bruno van der Kraan from Unsplash

This review is a little different because “He Is Jesus” is a brand new release from someone I know! Zack Shelton and I went to college together at Kentucky Christian University, where we were in the same creative songwriting class (where his skills far exceeded mine) and the same choir (where he used to cheat off of me when he forgot his part 😜). Since the lyrics aren’t online yet, he’s given me permission to post them here in full. Let’s check out “He Is Jesus” and see if it’ll worship!

Focus

The main themes of this song are the identity and power of Jesus. It lists many biblical attributes and titles of the Lord as well as some of his mighty works, especially the resurrection. A secondary theme is our response of awe and praise to who Jesus is, what he’s done, and the relationship we have with him.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
“The beginning and the end
My heart can’t seem to comprehend
My lips in vain try to explain
The One so grand and yet so plain”

Here, we focus on the incomprehensible majesty of God. The exalted Jesus calls himself the beginning and the end in Revelation 22:13. The next two lines lament the impossibility of fully understanding or describing God. Biblical authors sometimes use the word “unsearchable” to express this attribute of God (Ps. 145:3, Rom. 11:33). I like the line “so grand and yet so plain” because it feels like a fresh expression of the paradox of Jesus’ being exalted in humbling himself on a cross (Phil. 2:6-9). It also brings to mind the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 53, who, though exalted, “had no form or majesty that we should look at him.”

CHORUS
“He is the Lion He is the Lamb
He is all God yet He is all man
He is the Way the Light and the Truth
He is for me and He is for you
He is with us
He is Jesus”

Jesus is both the conquering lion and the slain lamb in Revelation 5:5-6. He is identified as God in Titus 2:13 and a human being with real flesh in 1 John 4:2. He calls himself the way, the truth, and the life in John 14:6. Zack changes “life” to “light,” but that’s fine with me since Jesus also calls himself the light of the world in John 8:12.

Bonus points for putting a clear statement of the doctrine of hypostatic union in a worship song! In all seriousness, this is an important mystery of our faith that we don’t sing about often enough. Jesus is fully God and fully man. For more exploration of this essential point of Christology, check out this article from Matt Perman at Desiring God. (Warning! Your brain may hurt a little afterward.)

“He is for me and He is for you” could be interpreted two ways. It could mean, “Jesus is for everyone,” echoing Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 4:10, that God is the “Savior of all people, especially those who believe.” So this Jesus that we’ve been singing about isn’t just for some people, he’s for anyone who chooses to believe. I think this is the most likely meaning and what most people will take from the song. The other possibility is that it means “Jesus is for you,” in the sense of being on your side (Romans 8:31). In this case, we need to remember that Jesus is not for you if you choose not to believe in him. In doing so, you make yourself his enemy (Phil. 3:17-19). It’s also important to note that God being for us means his Spirit is on our side in the fight against evil, both within ourselves and in the world (Romans 8), not that he is going to make my sports team win or help me defeat my rival for a promotion at work.

And of course, Jesus promises to be with us, especially as we carry out his work of discipling others and teaching them to know and follow him (Matt. 28:19-20).

VERSE 2

“My spirit leaps when I proclaim
The simple sound of Jesus’ name
We’ll shout the name that demons fear
And we won’t stop til the streets can hear”

Believing in Jesus should absolutely make our spirits leap for joy (1 Peter 1:8). Demons shudder with fear in response to that same belief (James 2:19). The line about not stopping until the streets can hear is either a description of evangelism (Mark 16:15) or just a really loud worship service (Psalm 150). I approve of both.

BRIDGE

“The hands that formed woodlands
Were pinned to a tree
Hell shouted in victory
Heaven said Wait and see
Cause our Lord is a warrior
With a comeback so fierce
He’ll reign as Prince of Peace
And the Lamb who was pierced
I am both at home
And in awe
Of the One who builds up faith
And tears down walls
Every saint and sinner
Will one day declare
That the stone was rolled away
And His body’s not there”

Lots of Scripture references in the bridge! First, Jesus is described as forming woodlands, something he certainly did, since they exist, and he created all things (Col. 1:16). The next line reminds us that one of those trees he created was used to make the cross on which he died.

Heaven and Hell are personified as having a little argument here. I’m not aware of any Bible passage that describes what exactly the forces of evil did when Jesus died, but from an earthly perspective, it would certainly have seemed like darkness had won. And God certainly knew what was coming next!

God is a warrior who saves (Zeph. 3:17); Jesus is our Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6) and the Lamb of God who takes away our sins (John 1:29). “I am both at home and in awe” is a unique lyric. I like how it juxtaposes the comfort of feeling truly at home (2 Cor. 5:8) with the more jarring sensation of awe at God’s power and holiness. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2), and he tears down the walls of hostility that divide us from each other and from God (Eph. 2:14).

If we’re going to be real pedantic, Philippians 2:10-11 just says that every knee will bow at the name of Jesus and that every tongue will confess that he is Lord. Nothing about the empty tomb. However, Paul says this in the context of Jesus being exalted through his death on the cross, and his resurrection is a necessary part of that. So I think this is a fair poetic extrapolation from the text.

CHORUS 2

“He is the Lion He is the Lamb
He is all God yet He is all man
He is the Way the Light and the Truth
He is for me and He is for you
He is the Rock He is the Door
He is right now
And he’s forevermore
He is Creator
Of all time and space
He’s in the quiet
And he’s in this place
He is with us
He is Jesus”

This final chorus repeats everything from the first chorus and adds a few more statements about who Jesus is. Jesus is the rock on which we can build our lives (Matt. 7:24-27), and the rock of our salvation and provision (Deut. 32:15). Jesus calls himself the door of the sheepfold in John 10:1-10; this is another way of saying that he is the only way to abundant, eternal life. We already talked about Jesus being the eternal creator of everything.

God appears to Elijah in a quiet whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13), and Jesus encourages his followers to seek him in quiet solitude (Matt. 6:6). Yet he is also enthroned on the praise of his people (Ps. 22:3), which can be quite loud, especially since we’ve already been encouraged to sing so that the streets can hear.

Accessibility

By and large, this song is easy to understand. An inexperienced churchgoer might not get what it means that Jesus is the door, or that he’s all God and also all man, but these truths are presented plainly, not hidden behind insider language or obscure Old Testament references. We talked a little about how the idea of God being “for us” can be easily misunderstood, but I don’t think this song misapplies the phrase.

I expect congregations to latch onto the choruses of this song immediately. The verses and the bridge will be a little trickier for them to learn. Zack’s easy-to-sing-with baritone voice is also a nice change of pace from the tenor-dominated worship genre that usually has us straining to sing the high notes with Chris Tomlin or Brandon Lake. This is a worship song that I won’t have to transpose, hooray!

Music

“He Is Jesus” starts off with a bright intro and a catchy lead that shouldn’t be too hard for your keyboard player to pick up. We drop down for a first verse that is all acoustic down strums and sparse piano notes and then launch into the punchy first chorus. We come down a little for verse 2, but keep a drum groove going and don’t lose much energy before going back into a repetition of chorus 1. After the chorus we revisit the instrumental hook but with some background “oh-oh-oh”s. Adding the shouts of “Jesus” here is a nice touch. We bring it down for the bridge and then build up with toms, like you would expect. The chorus is longer now with extra words that follow the same rhythmic pattern. The outro is high-energy and features the same lead hook with the vocals.

If you’re doing this song in church, I would encourage having your backup vocalists mimic the BGVs in the recording closely. I think the way the vocals add meaning and emotion to the instrumentals and help build excitement on the bridge is really cool! As a keyboard player, I also find the use of piano the song tasteful and fun to play. (It’s easy to go overboard with piano in a worship song.) The instrumental parts of this song seem to be at a good difficulty level for a normal church worship band.

Conclusions

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that this song uses a lot of little couplets of “rhyming ideas” much like the books of Proverbs and Psalms. Some of these idea pairs reinforce each other (he is the rock; he is the door), but most of them are opposite statements that are both true of Jesus (beginning and end, lion and lamb). I think it’s healthy for us to be reminded that God contains a lot of mystery and paradox, and that when our lips try to fully explain him, we will always fall short.

Will “He Is Jesus” worship? One hundred percent.

The lyrics are biblical, insightful, and original. The choruses are easy to learn and the range is reasonable. I also think this song carves out a niche for itself by describing the identity of Jesus in a fresh way. It doesn’t feel like it would be redundant with the songs my church is already singing.

Great work Zack; looking forward to hearing more!

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.